


in the bright white room

by vexahlla



Category: Persona 3
Genre: Gen, Post-Game, how to deal with grief when your name is Iori Junpei: the not-so-advice-guide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-20 02:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12422832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vexahlla/pseuds/vexahlla
Summary: News travels fast about an incident upon the school's rooftop before graduation.





	in the bright white room

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this ages ago when my friend Asia (@lightinthedarkness) got me into Persona 3 for the first time, and this fic was a "thank you but fuck you" to her when I finished playing through the game.
> 
> enjoy!

The news spreads through the school first.

It was bound to, of course, but it didn’t stop the sympathetic looks that they would get; Junpei hated it, even more so than Yukari would have. Fuuka and Aigis tried to ignore it, how the other classmates would look at them, the friends that stood by her side always, and gives their silent sympathies. It was like they were mourning her, like she was dead and gone.

Minako Arisato was in a coma, and Junpei would argue that she was very fucking much alive, and if any person gives him condolences–

“Snap out of it,” Yukari mutters, elbowing him in the ribs. It’s lunchbreak, and they’re both sitting outside their classroom waiting for it to end. Waiting for those condolences to die down, waiting for Minako to wake up, to come back to school, and then everything would be normal again. “Being angry won’t do anything.”

Junpei laughs wryly. “Sure as hell beats being sad.”

It doesn’t. Not really.

* * *

Rio learned first, from gossiping members in the tennis club who heard from one classmate who was in the same class as Minako, and it spread from wildfire like that.

“Is it true?” She demanded, hands clenched and shaking at her sides. If her eyes weren’t red from crying, then maybe they’d feel a bit sorry for her. Now, though, they only feel the aching wound in their chest hurt a bit more. “Is it true–”

“Yes.”

Aigis’ voice sounds so unnervingly mechanical that Junpei’s sure she never changed in the first place.

“Where?” Rio asks, biting down on her lip to stop herself from crying outright. She’s a tough girl. “What hospital–what  _room_?”

Aigis replies, still in the monotone and flat mechanical voice she had before. “Tatsumi Hospital. Room 304.”

Rio turns on her heel and doesn’t look back. They know where she’s going anyway.

* * *

The dorm gets a lot of letters. Correction:  _Minako_  gets a lot of letters, and then it’s sent to the dorm.

It’s almost like she’s still here, still awake and in her room, unwilling to crawl out of her bed. The painful reminder that there is no living being currently behind that oak door even when they knock hurts them all the same.

Minako gets a lot of letters: from a boy in France named Andre Laurent Jean Geraux that Yukari recognizes as “Bebe”. Another from a girl named Saori Hasegawa that Fuuka recognizes from the Health Committee; another from Maiko Oohashi. They all remember Maiko, since Minako came by the dorm with her a lot, stepping in quickly “just to get something” before they were both out the door once again, going to who knows where.

Hell, once, there was even a letter addressed to her from President Tanaka from the famous shopping show.

Long story short: Minako knew a lot of people.

They don’t read the letters, not wishing to invade upon the privacy and the feelings written in ink on those pages. They have to get a box, then two, because of how many pile up outside the dorm for Minako, as if she’ll get up to read them.

“She’s… she’s gonna get to read them, right?” Ken asks one night, all of them sitting in the lounge together, trying to find comfort in each other’s presence. An old movie plays in the background, but they pay it no mind.

Akihiko scoffs, almost offended at the notion that she wouldn’t. “Of course she’ll read them. Give her time.”

 _How much time?_  Junpei wants to ask.  _How much more time does she need?_

He still doesn’t know the answer.

* * *

Minako also gets a lot of visitors, they learn quickly.

Bunkichi and Mitsuko Kitamura, owners of the bookstore “Bookworms”, and how they know Minako isn’t hard to guess. She spent a lot of evenings and Sunday’s near the Strip Mall, always coming back with a smile and an armful of food that she was “gifted” with. It’s not hard to hear the fondness in their voice when they speak to her.

It’s also not hard to see the sadness in their eyes when they leave the room.

There’s also a monk named Mutatsu, and how he knows Minako is one giant mystery to them. He sits in silence for the most part, but there are days when Mitsuru will hear him talking about a wife and son, talking about how thankful he is that Minako showed up when she did, that she saved a marriage and his relationship with his son. And sometimes, rarely, that he doesn’t want to lose another kid too.

A young girl shows up sometimes, in the summer - Maiko, they know, from her brief visits in the dorm - and with her is her mother; both of them sitting in the room while Maiko chats on and on about her new school, her new home, and how happy she is. She talks about how the takoyaki there doesn’t compare to the ones that they shared on those weekends, or when they would go to Wild Duck after playing at the shrine for an hour or two.

“You gotta wake up, okay?” They hear her say, sniffling between her sobs as the days begin to drag on. How long has Minako been asleep? “I don’t wanna lose my big sister just yet, okay? You promised me we’d play again.”

* * *

It’s been nearing two years now, and Mitsuru’s been fighting with the hospital for the past few weeks -  _“You’ll keep her on life support or I will drag that hospital into the mud, do you hear me?!”_  - and sometimes, it’s like fighting Nyx all over again. The oppressive force hitting them again, except this time to reality to where Minako may not ever wake up, that they’re only keeping her alive for their own sanity.

It’s starting to drive them apart. They don’t live at the dorm anymore, no, but the phone calls are less and less, and seeing each other at the hospital is only once in a blue moon. Without Minako, what really kept them together as a team? They were friends, of course, but what’s a group without their leader?

What are they without her?

**Author's Note:**

> find me at [tumblr](http://calebwidogst.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/calebwidodad)
> 
> hope you enjoyed!


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